Someone cleared their throat, and Enne turned to see Charlotte and Marcy hovering by the door.
“You both can’t justleaveus here,” Charlotte said, aghast. “Who will run this place without you? Marcy?”
Marcy glared at her from behind her wide-rimmed glasses. “I’d be a great boss.”
“Enne, your contract is gone. You can kiss Pup up and down the Brint and no one will care. Please don’t make us stay here.”
Even Marcy looked downcast. “The Secretary of the Treasury won’t let us keep our cats at the office.”
Enne beamed—she wouldn’t be without her friends, after all. Then she looked to Grace hesitantly. “What do you think? Whatever you’re ready for, it’s your call.”
A small smile played on Grace’s lips.
“I thinkmuckthem. I hate auditing—it’s like math with extra rules. Tell everyone to dump the litter and pack their desks. Enne’s taking us back to the North Side.”
But Grace and Enne didn’t return to the North Side—not yet.
“Why are you dressed like that?” Enne asked Levi.
He did a spin as he entered the conference room. “What? I dressed for the meeting. You’re wearing pearls.”
“I almost always wear pearls,” she countered. “You’re wearing purple.”
“It’s mauve,” he said. “It’s dapper.” He grinned widely, and Enne let out an unladylike snort. She personally thought he looked ridiculous—Levi had taken Harrison’s old advice to buy new suits so seriously it had become a joke. He was wearing a polka-dot necktie with a matching pocket square, and it didn’t make him look smart. It made him look like he was making fun of the whole South Side.
But it was relieving to see him like this. Well. Not just physically, but emotionally. The City of Sin had once been the whole world to him. Now it had to be.
“You look absurd,” Grace told him flatly as she reapplied her eyeliner with her compact mirror.
“You’re not even looking at me,” Levi said, frowning.
“I don’t need to.”
“Did Harrison approve of your new look?” Enne asked. Today had been Levi’s first day as one of the Chancellor’s staff, in the illustrious role of intern. Well, the day wasn’t quite over. Levi claimed he’d joined this meeting in an official capacity.
He smirked. “Oh, you’ll see what Harrison thinks of it.”
The door swung open, and Chancellor Augustine entered the room. He scowled as soon as he spotted Levi. “I told you to change. You look like you work at Kipling’s Department Store, not the government.” Then he sighed and shook Enne’s and Grace’s hands. “Good to see you again. It’s been...busy.”
“Thank you for meeting with me,” Enne said smoothly.
“I always make time for my friends,” Harrison said, then he checked his watch. “But I don’t havemuchtime. The Senate has a vote in—”
“We’ll be fast,” Enne assured him, and she took a deep breath, ready to begin her rehearsed speech. “It’s just that I recently started looking into who owns the land of the Ruins District, which is when I found out that the city does. And I was wondering if you’d let me help to develop that land—to restore all of the historic sites in the North Side, whether from the Revolution or otherwise. The National Bank isn’t the right place for me. This is a better legacy for me.”
The speech must not have done the trick, because Harrison heaved another sigh. “The city will take a lot of convincing to develop such historic land.”
“It’s not historic,” Enne countered. “It’s abandoned. Looted. Nearly everything that would’ve been salvageable for renovation has been destroyed over the years.”
Levi elbowed her sharply in the side, and Enne plastered on a smile. “I mean,” she started, “itdoeshave history, but that isn’t what I’m interested in preserving. It’s disrespectful to let it remain in such shambles, to all the people who died there, revolutionaries or otherwise.”
Levi elbowed her a second time, and she shot him an annoyed look. Until she realized that he was smiling. He only meant that she’d spoken well. She shot him a proud smile.
“It’s out of the question,” Harrison said flatly.
Enne stiffened. “What?”
“I’ve already been pushing the limits as it is with all the reforms I’ve instituted in my first week of office, and I have no desire to force you into the type of suffocating contract Fenice offered you. But I have the Senate to answer to, and I simply cannot succeed in spearheading the idea of a Mizer having such a pivotal role in shaping the way New Reynes treats its history.”
